Week 11: Rivalry Week
Rivalry. It’s commonly stated, but hardly cliché, that rivalries are what make college football what it is. For even the bluest of bloods, nothing is more important than beating your rival.
Ask 10 Alabama fans the following question and if you receive anything but a unanimous answer, someone is lying to you about being a true Alabama fan.
If you could win the national championship every year, but never beat Auburn again, would you take it?
There is only one answer for true fans, and it’s not the one that involves a College Football Playoff trophy. No championship trophy can wipe away the shame you’ll feel when you make eye contact while passing that stranger in the airport wearing the rival’s colors. No championship can restore the bragging rights that the rivalry game winner gets to take with them for 364 days.
College football is the only sport in the world where there is something much more important than winning it all.
For fans, it is a beautiful thing. Regardless of whether your team is undefeated or winless, you’re still guaranteed your very own Super Bowl each fall, one game that means absolutely everything.
For coaches, it’s a blessing and a curse that the most important measure of success is whether you beat your rival. Even for a coach successful by every other measure, with winning seasons and conference titles, if they can’t beat the rival, they’ll need to keep the business card of their real estate agent close by, because they're going to have a house to put up for sale. But on the other side of the coin, for a beleaguered coach trudging through a season that misses all expectations, the opportunity for rebirth is always one win away. All can be forgiven if the coach can somehow muster that one most important victory on the final Saturday of the year.
13 Saturdays has taken me to some big games this season and some that were rightfully removed from network television, but at each step of the way, the importance of rivalry made its presence known. From the fully decorated waste depositories dedicated to Utah’s rival BYU to the various doormats, unflattering t-shirts, and carefully picked trailer décor throughout the rest of the Pac, it was clear, rivalry is a permanent part of gameday even when the rival squad is nowhere to be seen.
At both Cal and Stanford, when I asked tailgaters what their weekly traditions were, every single person had the same qualifier: “Well, most weeks we do this, but for Big Game…” And you can go ahead and substitute the name of the schools for any other two Pac-12 rivals and the qualifier will still stand true. Regardless of records, stakes, weather, or any other possible variable, Rivalry Week will never end in just another Saturday. Tailgates will triple in size, Pac-12 fans will for (at least one day) be in their seats before kickoff, and there will be tears, oh yes, there will be tears.
Here’s a quick check-in on Rivalry Week in the Pac:
Stanford v. Cal – The Big Game – For the 7th straight year the Axe is headed back to spend spring semester in Palo Alto. Meaning that once again, the score for the 1982 game that featured this little-known Play will be left to read "California 19, Stanford 20" rather than the official score of California 25, Stanford 20.
USC v. UCLA – The Battle for the Victory Bell – The Victory Bell will also remain cardinal this year following USC’s dominating victory over my beloved Bruins. During my 3 and a half hour drive from San Diego to the Rose Bowl on Saturday (note, that was an 89 mile trip), I couldn’t help but think about this lesson on the Civil War from 8th grade social studies about the soldiers who were charged with leading the defense on the enemies coming to take over their land. Apparently, certain soldiers were charged with hopping on horseback and essentially sent on kamikaze missions where they were nearly-certain to be knocked from their horses and gravely injured by incoming cannon launches, but this initial charge was thought to inspire the troops to defend their turf, so out of loyalty, these soldiers hopped aboard and raced full speed into the oncoming doom. Yup, that seems to accurately sum this one up.
Washington v. Washington State – The Apple Cup – In a game that is somehow not yet sponsored by Mott’s, the Apple State rivals will battle for the Pac-12 North in the most important rivalry matchup between the two since… EVER! All that’s on the line is a trip to the Pac-12 championship, the chance for Wazzu to crush the Dawgs College Football Playoff hopes, and this trophy (Personally, I think they’d be better off going with something that could hold actual apples like the Orange Bowl trophy). This game should be a pretty amazing way to pay tribute to the 8th anniversary of the Crapple Cup, the 2008 version of this game in which the teams entered the game with a combined 1-21 record. Wazzu won and the fans rushed the field. Yes, the fans rushed the field when their 2-10 Cougs beat the 0-12 Dawgs. Why? Because there is nothing more important than beating your rival.
Arizona State v. Arizona – The Territorial Cup – The last time both these teams won on the same day, Donald Trump was a reality TV star, Kanye West was still putting on full-length concerts, and Tony Romo was the Dallas Cowboys QB. Does it matter that the teams are coming in on a combined 12-game losing streak? Hell no. This is rivalry week, or as they call it in the Cactus state, Hate Week. Nothing like a fresh helping of good, clean college football hate to wash down Thanksgiving leftovers. 13 Saturdays will be there for the desert duel and will report back on which Arizona coach’s seat is hotter and what an actual Territorial Cup looks like.
Utah v. Colorado – Rumble in the Rockies - They say that you can’t manufacture a rivalry, but if Utah and Colorado keep having years like this one, the “Rumble in the Rockies” will create a healthy hate between neighbors soon enough. This may no longer be the Pac-12 South Championship as many expected a week ago, but everything is still on the table for Colorado. Yes, everything. It is Thanksgiving eve and the sentence “Colorado has a chance to be National Champions” is a completely factual statement. 2016, everybody, 2016. What a year.
Oregon v. Oregon State – The Civil War – If you check these team’s records and place in the standings, you’ll see that this game is meaningless. Oregon is 4-7. Oregon State is 3-8. The teams play for an unofficial trophy that features a Platypus. I haven’t checked the weather, but its fair to assume it will be a rainy and cold November day in the Pacific Northwest. Yet, the game is sold out. Reser Stadium will be filled to the brim. This game that is meaningless for the standings, meaningless for championship and bowl implications, is still the most meaningful game of all. Rivalry. It’s a beautiful thing.
